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The lowest prices in more than a decade are driven by an oversupply of US shale players.
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OPEC, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries,
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is the production cartel of more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries led by Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq.
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The strategy of the OPEC has been drowning the market in fuel to
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put U.S. producers out of business and hold onto their market share.
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Saudi Arabia has played the oil card before. In the 1970s, OPEC cut oil exports to the U.S.
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after America backed Israel in the Yom Kippur War.
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OPEC, which produced more than half the world's supply of oil,
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was successful in driving up prices and hurting the U.S. economy.
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But fracking has cut into its market share. OPEC is now producing less than half of the world's supply of oil.
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Saudi Arabia especially needs that market share.
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The goal now is to lower prices and force unconventional drillers out of business.
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It's a simple plan: the higher the supply, the lower the cost.
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The lower the cost, the less profitable it is for U.S. drillers to produce.